


Dracheheim

by Puzzled



Category: Girl Genius, Worm - Wildbow
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Mad Science
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-25
Updated: 2016-04-25
Packaged: 2018-06-04 12:31:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6657811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Puzzled/pseuds/Puzzled
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Klaus returned to find a shattered Europa.  He wasn't the first one to start putting it back together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dracheheim

Dracheheim.  
  
That's what they said to him as he picked through the ruins of his town, if he wanted safety go to Dracheheim. Klaus had never heard of it, which meant it was new since his exile. A few more questions gave its location, forty miles north around a hill that only escaped classification as a mountain because of Franz "Tectonic" Heterodyne's quite literal crusade for the use of proper geological nomenclature. Standing beneath the shattered and looted hulk of Castle Wulfenbach he thought about simply walking, with his enhancements he'd be there by morning.  
  
Gil chose that moment to make himself known, wailing insistently. That decided it, he needed to find a place to sleep and feed his son. This probably was the best place anyway, at least one of his hidden caches had to have survived.  
  
It took three tries before he found one unopened and unspoiled. Building a secret compartment into the underside of a bridge might have seemed foolish, but no one had found it so Klaus felt vindicated. It didn't have much for supplies, just water, jerky, and a sealed container of his instant waffles. And something hidden under a tarp, but Klaus had put it there so it wasn't a threat, whatever it was.  
  
Gil dozed off as soon as he was fed and Klaus half wanted to join him. The shelter was warm, protected by three inches of steel, hidden impressively, and if anyone came to visit he had his tunable disintegration ray to greet them. If he was going to visit unknown sparks tomorrow being well rested might be the difference in an encounter. After running through his exhaustive pre-sleep checklist, a habit that had saved his life enough for him to tell his friends despite their mocking, he too was out.  
  
His son certainly seemed to have some avian traits if his sleeping schedule was any indication. Maybe the Skifandrian physiology made him extra sensitive to the passage of time. Or maybe all children were like roosters in their desire to make sure absolutely everyone was awake at dawn.  
  
Gil calmed down eventually, fascinated by the light emitting sessile slug that someone, Lucrezia probably, had given out for one Christmas. She hadn't mentioning that as soon as their light producing organs stopped working they metamorphosed into extremely aggressive echo-locating snake things, but that was the Mongfish sense of humor. This one had months of light left anyway.  
  
Klaus swung his son up to his backpack, Gil burbled happily as he got a much closer look at the slug. He was about to open the hatch and leave their little refuge when the tarp caught his eye. He wouldn't have put something here if he didn't think it would be useful. One overenthusiastic pull and a face full of dust later he found he'd hit the jackpot.  
  
The Heterodyne Boys stories always focused on their adventures, and Klaus's pratfalls, but those had been forgettable, just another set for the monomyth. He had treasured their time together, not just because it was happier than the current spark shattered ruin of Europa, but because he was working with the most powerful sparks of the age. Everyday they had made wonders and then moved on to the next castle, temple or occasional dimensional rift. Not all they’d made was lost though, some of it had been too promising to abandon. The Barely Luggable Inflatable Manifold and Propeller he was staring at was one of them.  
  
The name had been the only thing Bill contributed, but Lucrezia, Barry and him had taken the idea of a backpack blimp and brought it as close to fruition as five days of schnapps filled fugues could manage. It was a three hundred pound aluminum cylinder, giving it a gentle push he could hear the sloshing that its tanks were full. Suddenly forty miles didn't seem so daunting.  
  
Getting out of the refuge while ensuring the cylinder didn’t fall and smash was surprising difficult, but not enough to slow him down. He dragged the blimp’s shell into a fairly open square, barely luggable would have been an exaggeration for anyone without his enhancements, and carefully did a full check of the surroundings. Once he was assured that no one was immediately present he cracked his knuckles and got to work.  
  
“So this control is to adjust for atmospheric humidity.” Gil didn’t really appreciate the finer points of engineering yet, but all the child care books Klaus had read emphasized the importance of regular stimuli for the developing mind. Considering he often had to ensure Gil was silent to avoid any risks Klaus was glad to take the opportunity, it also let him refresh himself on the blimp’s systems. “And this was meant to set correct gas mix for the desired altitude, but someone,” he carefully didn’t say Bill, speaking ill of the most likely dead would just remind him why he’d feel guilty about it, “was too busy with the beautiful daughter of the week to calibrate it.”  
  
Gil’s attention had irretrievably wandered by the time Klaus confirmed that the blimp would be operational, all he had to do was hit the switch and wait. Well all he had to do but resweep the areas of the town that could conceal anti-air emplacements, they’d smashed too many escape vehicles over the years for him not to be cautious at the last step of his exit. Slinging his disintegrator around so that it was easy to grip he quickly moved around the perimeter of the square, doing his best to remain silent with the techniques his wife had beaten into him. There was nothing, only a few birds that he managed to avoid startling into flight. Feeling moderately more secure he returned to the center of the square and threw the blimp’s initiation switch.  
  
The cylinder expanded, its ends sliding apart to reveal that it’s unbroken finish had been a shell concealing intricate mechanisms. Metal spikes hammered into the ground, brakes to stop the blimp from running free as a central mast rose majestically. Clockwork whirred as the bubble shaping ribs expanded to create the shell for the blimp envelope. Technically it was a zeppelin but five word acronyms were hard enough to deal with. Barry had designed the delicate system, rings of metal seemingly growing from the central strut to form sections of an ellipsoid.  
  
The next part was Lucrezia’s. With a shudder that nearly made Klaus panic a compressor kicked into motion as a noxious green liquid began to slowly inflate into a bubble. Whenever the bubble’s edge’s touched a rib they clung to it, until each metallic section was concealed, giving the blimp a transparent green envelope. The next section was the diciest, it had taken three tries to find the right curing agent, but inside the bubble an invisible gas was audibly filling it. It’s effects were more evident, whenever the concentration grew high enough the envelope changed to a translucent turquoise with the consistency of a high tensile strength polymer. The agent had one more useful property, the reaction was extremely exothermic. In addition to speeding up the process it also increased the pressure in the envelope. Valves at the bottom sent the heavier gasses into the engine’s fuel tanks, even as the remaining superheated products filled the blimp with lifting gas.  
  
The blimp was now ready, ducking under the full envelope Klaus gave the square one final check, still no one, before he gave the motor’s starter cord a strong yank. It spun into life as Klaus kicked the brake release lever, they were aloft. Taking Gil off his back, the thin shell of the gondola wasn’t much protection but it was better than nothing, and pulled the disintegration ray to his shoulder and flipped it to full power. This was the most dangerous stage of the ascent and he scanned the city over his iron sights to try to spot any threat that could-  
  
There! A lance of blue flame stabbed forth, obliterating a group of men. He didn’t know what they were up to but if they wanted to remain one with their constituent atoms they shouldn’t have been pointing anything at him. Nothing else stirred after that display although Klaus kept a close watch until they broke into the clouds.  
  
It was wet and uncomfortable, Gil made his displeasure clear, but staying inside the layer was safest. Normally he’d need to stay in sight of the ground but he’d been lucky. The blimp had an inertial navigator, one of the finer ones he’d made before giving up on them as a bad job after Skifander somehow ruined their accuracy. Forty miles though, he’d be fine almost no matter what.  
  
It took just over an hour, the winds were against them, but they’d reached the rough location of Dracheheim. He dropped out the clouds, thermally regulating altitude was an elegant feature that he much preferred to ballast, and nearly swore. Gil was due to start speaking soon and he didn’t want to speed his vocabulary’s inevitable corruption. Looking at Dracheheim though, he wanted to.  
  
He had meant to drop out the clouds at a safe distance, ten miles or so. It would be enough distance that he would simultaneously not look like a threat while also allowing him to retreat without any real risk of interception. Right over the fields surrounding the low walls was not quite his goal.  
  
He could see the sentinels on the walls pointing, men scurrying back and forth as a bell began to ring. Movement dragged his eye to a cupola on the castle squatting atop the hill. It was rotating, he doubted it was a loudspeaker to welcome him to the city. His mind raced as he tried to think of options. He was well in range of all sorts of weapon systems and his blimp wasn’t particularly quick or nimble. The act of fleeing might be enough for them to shoot, holing his envelope would bring him down alive and would only be sensible given the state of Europa. His die was cast.  
  
He chose a fallow field to set down in, making his intentions clear by winding down in a gentle helix to it. A squad of guardsmen met him as he deployed the anchors, he deliberately set his disintegrator down as he stepped out from the shell, leaving Gil concealed on the gondola’s floor.  
  
Now that he was looking more closely the guards were quite impressive. All of them had some armor, breastplates, greaves and helmets and more interestingly all held them same sort of weapon, a boxy rifle machined from black steel. They stared at each other in silence for a long moment, their guns carefully not pointed at him, before Klaus took the initiative.  
  
“Hello.” There was a reason why Bill and Barry had handled most of their negotiations. “I’d like to visit Dracheheim.”  
  
They shared a look, deferring to a particularly weathered man who put one hand to his ear and another to his mouth as a he half turned away. Klaus listened but he could only hear snatches of conversation, both sides though. Whoever was in charge had some particularly small communicators. At last it was over, everyone tensed as they awaited the orders and Klaus relaxed as a gesture from the man caused the other guards to stand down.  
  
“You’re welcome in the city so long as you follow the laws, they’re posted by the gate in three languages. If you can’t read them, they’ll be read to you.” the guard’s voice had taken on the tone of a man who’d said all of this before. “Any weapons you have must be left outside. The city reserves the right to examine and possibly confiscate any sparktech you have and if any sign of infection is detected the city may expel or quarantine you for treatment. All such actions of the city may be contested in a court of law, if you cannot afford a lawyer one will be appointed. Do you understand?”  
  
Klaus glanced at the city, then back to the guard. “Does everyone get this sort of welcome?”  
  
“Everyone who drops in flying a spark-made zeppelin,” was the dry answer.  
  
After that it was a simple matter of retrieving Gil and walking towards the gate accompanied by the guards who were doing their best not to look threatening. His son was entertained by the changing scenery, they rarely traveled by day so it was a treat for him to actually see things. The first surprise was when they actually reached the gatehouse, the iron portcullis lifted silently but the guard captain waved him to the side as the entire squad perked up, hands moving not to their weapons but close by. There was an arch, made of some sort of plastic with an attendant whose face was entirely concealed behind a visor standing behind it staring at a readout. “What’s this?”  
  
“A scanner.” From the tone of the captain further questions were not suggested, that was not enough to stop Klaus though.  
  
“What does it scan for?” The guards shuffled even as they tensed, getting ready for violence Klaus was not looking forward to.  
  
“Everything I could think of, and a few things I didn’t.” There was a new voice, it came from a tall man in dull green armor. He limped, not heavily but enough that the long spear in his hand was carrying some of his weight. His face was concealed but from the angle of his head he was staring at Klaus. “Nothing that will harm you or the child.”  
  
Klaus glanced around him, the path back to the zeppelin was clear and the guards closest to his route pointedly moved aside. Nothing ventured- “Well then.” He stepped through the arch and was met by several tones. No one reacted as Klaus kept moving slowly, everyone in fact relaxed and the additional guards watching from the walls began to drift away. “Am I clear to go then?”  
  
“If you could give us a name?” The operator of the scanner’s voice was distorted, metallic.  
  
Well he was here to meet with the sparks, name dropping might be his best bet. If not, well he’d figure something out. “Klaus Wulfenbach.”  
  
“He’s dead.” Klaus raised an eyebrow, indignant.  
  
“I’m certainly not.”  
  
“He’s not lying.” The green armored man’s words stopped the muttering. “That makes you Lord Wulfenbach then.”  
  
“We always styled ourselves as Barons, even in conversation.” The inanity of titles had always irritated him but correcting it was second nature at this point. “And I would like to speak with those in charge of Dracheheim.”  
  
The man, he was increasingly sure that he was one of the sparks. Based on his armor’s motifs it was probably Dragon looking him over. His gaze was dwelling on certain parts of Klaus, the parts that his mother had specifically augmented. That he could detect them at all said worrying things about the technology in his helmet, but at last he nodded. “Come with me then.”  
  
Dracheheim was a pretty town, neat with clean streets and healthy looking inhabitants. That made it a rarity in Europa where most towns were damaged and all had a desperate atmosphere. This town felt normal though, like before whatever cataclysm had hit in his absence, this “Other.” Children ran freely, a few of them pointing at the two of them walking.  
  
Dragon was silent as they ascended the hill, his stride uniform with the butt of his spear hitting the ground perfectly in time with his weaker leg. His armor itself was silent but Klaus could see the signs of muscular enhancements. Whatever he used to power it was efficient and small, there just wasn’t much room for a generator inside unless Dragon was missing limbs or organs.  
  
The castle was at least another five minutes walk but Klaus wanted to try to get the measure of the man. “So I’ve been gone for awhile, when did you set up here?”  
  
“Three years ago.” He didn’t contest Klaus’s assumption, practically confirming his suspicions. “We didn’t intend to take over the city, but,” he waved his arm in a gesture to indicate the whole of Europa.  
  
“Do you know what happened?” Klaus didn’t like admitting ignorance but Dragon was clearly a powerful spark, and talented enough at politics to get a city to follow him. He’d probably be one of the best sources of information.  
  
“The causes or identities of the perpetrators no.” He took a few more clunking steps. “But their methods, yes. A series of terror attacks. The first was on Mechanicsburg, that was the last anyone saw of the Heterodynes, followed by a period of calm as everyone reacted.”  
  
Klaus let him finish, only because he was too shocked. He’d heard the rumors but had discounted them. From the mouth of a spark though, they carried more weight. Not noticing his distress Dragon continued. “That was when the first hive engines began operating, they released insects,” there was some emotion on that word, “that were capable of taking over the will of those they attacked. Most people were left as sleeper agents while others were converted directly into mindless thralls.”  
  
Most of this he’d heard but the news about infiltrators was concerning. “So they could be any-”  
  
“No one here,” there was some pride in his voice. “The scanner you went through is able to detect them.” They’d reached the castle as they talked and its gate opened without a visible sign from Dragon. “Now I’ve answered some of your questions, I’d like for you to answer some of mine.” Dragon turned into a room with a long table surrounded by screens. “Dragon we’re here.” He called out to the empty room, and Klaus had to hide his surprise. So this must have been Defiant meaning-  
  
A woman appeared on the screen, unmasked but armored and surrounded by tools. “Hello Baron Wulfenbach, I’m Dragon and it’s a pleasure to meet you.”


End file.
